Of Every Creature

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Compact Disc (CD)

Come in a beautiful six panel wall with a 20 page booklet that includes description and lyrics of all songs on Of Every Creature.
Includes unlimited streaming of Of Every Creature
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

about

Of Every Creature is the first full length album by the Anabaptist Bestiary Project; a ten piece alternative rock ensemble under the creative direction of Trevor Bechtel. ABP is a collection of vocal and instrumental musicians from Bluffton University who delve into the artistic and literary heritage of the spirituality of creatureliness. At their most modest they are a college rock band. At their most bold they are striking out a new path for theological reflection on nature and reorienting the religion/science debate by modeling both good theology and good science. They reflect on the things that ethologists and naturalists discover about the world and its creatures and then engage in a theological reflection about the behavior and place of these creatures in the world.

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anabaptist bestiary projectBluffton, Ohio

Rocking the world through reflection on creatures the Anabaptist Bestiary Project is a ten piece alternative rock ensemble
under the creative direction of Trevor Bechtel. The ABP collects vocal and instrumental musicians from Bluffton University to delve into the artistic and literary heritage of the spirituality of creatureliness....more

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You’ve seen me move
You’ve seen me move, or have you
Or have you seen, or have you seen me move

I have found, I have found, another way to get around

Nature camoflages,
Nature camoflages me
I move so slow, the moss does grow on me
It makes me harder to see

I have found, here living on me, a disguise from prying eyes

I see you with shining tooth
trusting in the safety of strength
ready to fight to the end
are you ready to lose?

In an open spot with muscles taut
Trusting in the safety of speed
ready to take flight whenever you need
are you ready to be caught

Cause I’m hard to see
I’m hard to see
As I move so slowly, I move slowly through the trees
You’ve seen me move

I have found, here in the trees, a different kind of safety.

Track Name: Colony Collapse Disorder

Colony Collapse Disorder a song about honeybees

We dance to show each other where the flowers are
We dance to show from whence comes life
We love to find where all the colourful flowers are
We love to visit them, to take and give life

That’s why we dance
That’s why we tremble
We show with our waggle
Never needing to shake

And you you always understood
That we were the only way for you to be free
But instead you offered slavery,
Sickness, infestation and monotony
Don’t know if it’s the drugs or the drudgery
But we need something different we need something to change
And you you always understood
That you would die too, so why don’t you

Dance
Why can’t you tremble
Why won’t you waggle
We need to shake so

Why don’t you dance
Why can’t you tremble
Why won’t you waggle
We need to shake

Track Name: Nothing will change the world

Nothing will change the world a song about mice

Nothing will change the world, Nothing will change the world

In a hole
In a corner
of the bishop’s
antique credenza

Lives a mouse
a tiny mouse
with the name
Lorenza

And she thinks
about the world
and her friends
the ones she’s never seen

And she worries
about their safety
about their homes
the ones they’ve never had

she knows that
Nothing will change the world

We think we know how you are feeling
We think we know how it makes us feel
We think our feelings are important
We think you need to learn how we feel

Track Name: Elegy for Sea Turtles

elegy for sea turtles a song about sea turtles
(lyrics by Margaret Atwood)

Let others pray for the brown pelican
the blue crab, the heron, the cajun:
everyone must specialize

I will confine myself to a meditation
upon the sea turtles
withering finally on a remote island.

I concentrate in subway stations,
in parks, I can’t quite see them,
they move to the peripheries of my eyes

but on the last day they will be there;
already the event
like a wave traveling shapes vision:

on the road where I stand they will materialize,
plodding past me in a straggling line
awkward without water

their small heads pondering
from side to side, their useless armour
sadder than tanks and history,

in their closed gaze ocean and sunlight paralyzed,
lumbering up the steps, under the archways
toward the square glass altars

where the brittle gods are kept,
the relics of what we have destroyed.
our holy and obsolete symbols.

Track Name: Hummingbird Moth

hummingbird moth a song about hummingbird moths

If you want to see me know that I am strange
And your vision will need to be rearranged
If you want to learn about the things I do
Then just remember that it’s all happened to you

hummingbird moth

I am not a thing, I am nothing you have seen
But I am closer than anything you know
and when you see me you will recognize
That I have always been there in your eyes

hummingbird moth

expect me in the night but see me in the day
hiding in front of you as I show my face

Track Name: Flocks

flocks a song about homing pigeons

All the motion of the room around me
All the blurring of the lights
All the people with their arms out reaching
for great heights

We are all such a long way from home
Still I feel alright
All the children been imprinted by this love
Shine so bright, baby

Coo
Release me
Enfold me
Direct me
And I’m going to fly a long long way to home
Strengthen me
And I always know just the right way to go
Imprint me
Imprint me

All the features of the world around me
All the features of your face
All the features of magnets and sunshine
All God’s grace

We recognize it all around us
And we feel alright
All the children been imprinted by this love
Shine so bright, baby
Coo

Track Name: Quokka

quokka a song about quokkas

When you first saw me, should have recognized me
I’m really not that hard to see
Just because I don’t fit your categories
Doesn’t mean I’m not the one you need

I, I am the quokka
I am the herald of zoobiquity
Together we will find healing
We will together be happy

While you need food and water every day
I don’t really find it hard to be
Able to survive even in a harsh climate
All I need is some more vitamin E

I, I am the quokka
I am the herald of zoobiquity
Together we will find healing
We will together be happy
Together we will be happy
Together we will be wholex

Track Name: Always

Always a song about lions

I thought that you would make me alive
I thought that you could rise
I thought that you would lead me to heaven
I thought that you could hide

But it was
Always
Someone else
Who found the right words, found the right path

I know that you despise the young
you want them to die
I know that you don’t care for your neighbour
you only care for your pride

And it was
Always
Someone else
Who would protect me, circle round me

I will be more careful the next time
I put my trust in my eyes
I will look to the colour of your hair
and how it lies

I will build a world for you and in it all you’ll find are good things,
good things and true.
I will listen for the sound of the rushing water and begin,
begin to chew
I will build it strong and sturdy and it will be the home for my kit,
my kit and you
And in the pools that surround it all creatures will gather good things,
good things and true

See all the good that’s all around you everywhere
See, you can even see it from space
See all the good that’s all around you falling
See all the good it’s everywhere

I will build a world for you and in it all you’ll find are good things,
good things and true.
I will build a world for you to play in and find good work,
good work that you can do
Anytime you need a home to live in we are here to invite,
to invite you
I will build it all around you,
I will forever change the landscape with good things,
good things and true.

Track Name: Mosquito

mosquito a song about mosquitos

why do you circle around me
thorn in my side as you pierce my flesh
sucking the life out of my veins
leaving disease leaving me deranged
and i wish i could eradicate you
i wish that you would cease to exist
i wish that i could put something in your place
without you the world would be better than this

but i know,
i know that i need you
i know that you give just as much life
as you seem to take,
to take for your own self
oh jesus help me see the world

i wake up just having fallen asleep
to the itch just beneath that one piece of skin
that i just can’t reach, i can’t reach that deep
and i wonder how i could begin
to really work for a way to eradicate you
to find how how you could cease to exist
i’m sure that something else would take your place
and the world would be much better than this

then i wonder
wonder if i need you
not for your food or your pollination
but because you take
you take for your own self
exactly this kind of temptation

then i know
i know that i need you
i know that you give just as much life
as you seem to take,
to take for your own self
oh jesus help me see the world

Track Name: Follow

mosquito a song about mosquitos

why do you circle around me
thorn in my side as you pierce my flesh
sucking the life out of my veins
leaving disease leaving me deranged
and i wish i could eradicate you
i wish that you would cease to exist
i wish that i could put something in your place
without you the world would be better than this

but i know,
i know that i need you
i know that you give just as much life
as you seem to take,
to take for your own self
oh jesus help me see the world

i wake up just having fallen asleep
to the itch just beneath that one piece of skin
that i just can’t reach, i can’t reach that deep
and i wonder how i could begin
to really work for a way to eradicate you
to find how how you could cease to exist
i’m sure that something else would take your place
and the world would be much better than this

then i wonder
wonder if i need you
not for your food or your pollination
but because you take
you take for your own self
exactly this kind of temptation

then i know
i know that i need you
i know that you give just as much life
as you seem to take,
to take for your own self
oh jesus help me see the world

follow a song about sheep

If you walk away
I will follow you
to wherever
you choose to lead
i care less about
figuring out
what is safe for me
than what we can do

follow, i will follow you through the blizzard across the river
follow, i will follow through the path takes many turns, oh i will learn
follow, i will follow running, rolling, dodging through, i will follow you
follow, i will follow

If you walk away
I will follow you
to wherever
you choose to lead
I’m ruminating on
gifts to offer you
to keep you warm
to keep you fed

don’t take me away
don’t take me away from you
I’ve always been the one
willing to die for you

Track Name: Everyone

everyone a song about elephants

When I go to the store I forget, I forget
at home on the door are the canvas bags
and I know, oh I know, that they are the better way
and I wonder why I let myself forget

When I get to the checkout, across the aisle, across the aisle
Someone’s putting groceries into canvas bags
And I know, o I know that they’ve found the better way
And I wonder why I don’t take the example

As I get out my card to pay
The cashier says
Hey now did you forget your canvas bags
Hey now you need to remember

We need everyone

And then I think about the elephants in their parade, in their parade
And how they work so hard to help each other remember
And I know, o I know that they’ve found the better way
And I wonder when I’ll be able to recognize it

In times of drought, In time of danger, they remember, they remember
Where to find water and safety
And I know, o I know that they’ve found the better way.
But trusting in the memory of each other

And when an elephant dies
They all gather round
They touch trunks to their fallen friend
They touch trunks and remember, that